<p>I have always been into math and physics, and excelled in AP Calc and AP Physics in my high school. However, I'm terrible with hands on activities. I remember once my dad built a computer and asked me to join him, but I was unable to get myself interested in what he was doing, or what he was explaining to me when he was doing it. If I'm not that good and am not interested in hands-on activities, will computer or mechanical engineering be too difficult for me in college?</p>
<p>This probably isn’t answering your question, but what is it that draws you to engineering? It sounds like you love math and science, why not go for a pure math/science degree? I’m getting the vibe from your post that you want to be an engineer not because you’re passionate about it, but because you like the job opportunities.</p>
<p>well I was told that practicing engineers focus more on design on the drawing board, and less on actual hands-on building, which sounds perfectly okay for me. I was just wondering how the labs engineering majors do in college might affect me.</p>
<p>You might want to consider going down the Math or Science path if you really only care for the theoretical side of engineering. Another option would be to go in to engineering research, however, if you want to stick with the theoretical work entirely, you will almost certainly need a Master’s (and even this might not be enough) or PhD.</p>
<p>Having said all of that, engineering, by nature, is a mixture of hands-on and theory. If you plan on becoming a working engineer, you will more than likely encounter some hands-on tasks at some point in your career, be it operating a CAD program, taking measurements of a physical object, working in a wind tunnel, etc.</p>
<p>IMHO a major part of engineering is understanding how things work and that involves hands on work. After all, you are designing things that work/function. If you have no interest in this, you won’t do well in engineering. Find something that does interest you and do that.</p>
<p>I’m feelin’ ya, man. I have patience with many hands-on things, but none with others. I can’t draw a stick man, and my sister is a fine artist. It’s an aptitude + attitude issue.</p>
<p>You have a great Dad. Looks like he identified you, and he offered you (and himself) a self-discovery experiment. Perhaps you can be more hands-on away from your Dad, with peers that are very much like you. Maybe not. It seems that you are more the latter, and that is your final answer. That’s fine, except for the part where you might spend the rest of your life paying hands-on people to do stuff for you. That’s good for the economy, but bad for your savings account. I know.</p>
<p>Think a little more and project into your future. There’s a yin-yang for both.</p>
<p>Based on what you wrote, I would agree with other posters. Stick to the math/physics, if that’s what brings you happiness. Try to polish your communication skills, so that you can share your enthusiasm and knowledge of those subjects to others. There’s a shortage of that in the market.</p>
<p>I’m a recruiter. Frankly, my engineering clients want me to screen people like you out, but my education clients want me to screen people like you in.</p>
<p>You can’t lose either way. Thank your Dad for the test. You both get an A. Good luck!</p>
<p>I believe most engineers do not do hands-on work, even in mech. Except for QA and test engineers.</p>
<p>Most of you guys are silly. Many, if not most engineers are not in the trenches getting their hands dirty, but instead up in the offices working on design, optimization, etc. Stop telling the OP that you need to be interested in hands-on work. You don’t.</p>
<p>I can’t speak for mechanical engineering, but for computer engineering, it is absolutely fine to not be “hands on”. I’ve had a >20 year career as an electrical engineer (and engineering manager who hires EE, CS, and Computer Engineering majors), and have never personally built a computer. </p>
<p>I do think it is essential to like problem solving as an engineer. But lots of the problems are somewhat abstract and are not “hands on”. I’ve rarely touched a piece of lab equipment since my undergrad lab days. Computer simulations have taken over instead.</p>
<p>For computer or mechanical engineer majors in college though, how much of the learning revolves around theoretical content and how much of it is hands on learning (labs, projects etc)?</p>
<p>It might depend on why you don’t like to do hands on things. Maybe you just weren’t interested in computers which is one thing but maybe you don’t like to do hands on work because you don’t see the benefit of it that you would be better doing the planning then doing the work which I can understand just think of doing the hands on work as more of a tool for completing your task then being the entire job because in engineering you will be doing plenty of theoretical and mathematical work the hands on part is just finishing what you started.</p>
<p>Engineering in the workforce is rarely hands on work. That said, to be an engineer you do need to visualize what you’re doing to a degree. I wouldn’t exclude it entirely because of that. he problem solving skills that you clearly enjoy are a more important factor. But you do need to decide if you prefer research type work or industry type work - that will decide if you should go more science or engineering. Talk to an advisor in the engineering college; they could give you a good idea of what you would be doing as an engineer and possible engineering student groups you could join at the school to get a feel before getting too involved.</p>